Mizzou Tigers sign potential franchise QB in Sam Horn: ‘Change that whole program’
The Missouri Tigers football program signed seven four-star or higher ranked players in the 2022 recruiting class on Wednesday morning. One of them is quarterback Sam Horn, who figures to be Mizzou’s future under center.
Horn is the 15th-best recruit in Mizzou history, part of a historic class that also includes wide receiver Luther Burden, the second-best player to ever join the Tigers. Blaine Gabbert, Chase Patton and Drew Lock are the only higher rated quarterbacks to join the program.
“He’s clearly one of the best players in the country and quarterbacks,” Mizzou football coach Eliah Drinkwitz said.
Entering Wednesday, the start of the early national signing period, Mizzou’s 2022 class was ranked No. 13 in the country and fifth in the SEC by 247 Sports. Rivals has the class at No. 17 in the nation and seventh in the SEC. Drinkwitz said he has taken 36 flights in the last 14 days to finish the recruiting class.
“This is just a start,” Drinkwitz said. “Today is just a start of what you’re trying to build your roster towards for next year.”
Horn, a Suwanee, Georgia native, is a consensus top-10 quarterback in the country. Rivals ranks him as high as the No. 68 player in the entire class, regardless of position. He chose the Tigers over Tennessee, where both of his parents attended, in February.
“Missouri’s done a great job recruiting him,” said Lenny Gregory, Horn’s head coach at Collins Hill High School. “He’s excited to go up there, try to compete for a job and play and start maybe his first year and, you know, change that whole program.”
Horn is also committed to the Tigers to play baseball and will be staying home for his second semester of his senior year of high school to play the sport. Though things could potentially shift if his baseball stock soars and he gets selected high enough in the MLB Draft, for now, Drinkwitz sees him as the future of both programs.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s our starting quarterback and hopefully pitching in the College World Series,” Drinkwitz said Wednesday on the SEC Network.
The Tigers had issues at quarterback throughout the 2020 season and still haven’t decided who will start in the Armed Forces Bowl against Army on Dec. 22. Starting quarterback Connor Bazelak threw 11 interceptions to just 16 touchdowns on the year and was benched twice in the fourth quarter in the final three games. Though backups Brady Cook and Tyler Macon generated some buzz among the fan base, Horn offers even more intrigue.
With his performance to lead his team to a 24-8 victory over Milton in the Georgia Class 7A state championship on Saturday night, Horn became just the eighth quarterback in Georgia high school history to surpass 10,000 career passing yards. Some of the other players on that list include Trevor Lawrence, Deshaun Watson, Jake Fromm and Brock Vandagriff.
“He’s a complete quarterback,” Gregory said. “He’s extremely athletic and he’s got a NFL arm and he is a competitor. And he’s cool under pressure, he doesn’t panic. He’s just a great football player.”
Horn only started playing quarterback in eighth grade, Gregory said. But he has improved each year much in part to his work ethic.
“He’s always the first one in the weight room. He never misses practice. He gets every rep, he studies hard,” Gregory said. “He’s worked so hard to be where he’s at and to lead his team to the state championship and possibly a national championship.”
Horn and Collins Hill will be competing as part of the GEICO State Champions Bowl Series against Graham Kapowsin, Washington’s Class 4A champion, at 4 p.m. Saturday on ESPN 2.
Collins Hill had never won a state championship and the program became the first Georgia team in the highest classification to win every game by 15 points or more since 1971, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Gregory credits Horn for changing the program. And he thinks he can do the same thing at Missouri.
“He’s got an elite arm No. 1,” Gregory said. “And then I think that his ability to process the game, he sees it fast, he can process what the defenses are doing and he’s just a playmaker. I mean, the throws that he makes are elite and then he can hurt you running the ball. He’s probably very underrated as a runner. I mean, the kid can run.”
Pair that with Burden, the best wide receiver in the country, and Mizzou’s offense could have an electrifying future ahead.
2022 Mizzou Tigers recruiting class
Player, Position, Ranking, Height, Weight, Previous school (Location)
Luther Burden, WR, 5-star, 6-0, 200, East St. Louis (East St. Louis, Illinois) *
Sam Horn, QB, 4-star, 6-4, 190, Collins Hill (Suwanee, Georgia) *
Tavorus Jones, RB, 4-star, 5-10, 195, Burges (El Paso, Texas) *
DJ Wesolak, DL, 4-star, 6-4, 235, Boonville (Boonville, Missouri) *
Deshawn Woods, OL, 4-star, 6-4, 270, Central (Omaha, Nebraska)
Marquis Gracial, DL, 4-star, 6-4, 310, St. Charles (Saint Charles, Missouri) *
Isaac Thompson, S, 4-star, 6-2, 205, St. Louis University (St. Louis) *
Ja’Marion Wayne, WR, 4-star, 6-3, 180, Parkway West (Ballwin, Missouri) *
Marcus Scott II, DB, 3-star, 6-2, 170, Conroe (Conroe, Texas) *
Xavier Simmons, LB, 3-star, 6-3, 235, Northwest Guilford (Greensboro, North Carolina) *
Armand Membou, OL, 3-star, 6-4, 320, Lee’s Summit North (Lee’s Summit, Missouri) *
Mekhi Miller, WR, 3-star, 6-1, 185, Blue Valley North (Blue Valley, Kansas) *
Jalen Marshall, DL, 3-star, 6-5, 275, St. Thomas Aquinas (Overland Park, Kansas) *
Max Whisner, TE, 3-star, 6-6, 240, Lee’s Summit (Lee’s Summit, Missouri) *
Tristan Wilson, OL, 3-star, 6-5, 295, Lebanon (Lebanon, Missouri) *
Valen Erickson, OT, 3-star, 6-6, 280, St. Rita (Chicago) *
— Source of rankings: 247 Sports (CBS)
* — Announced as signed by the school
This story was originally published December 15, 2021 at 12:54 PM.
